A photo taken at Off the Record in Hillcrest / San Diego circa the late 1990's: L-R David Peck (President Reelin' In The Years Archive), Bart Mendoza, Mark DeCerbo (Four Eyes / Rockola) and Justin Pearson (The Locust). Photo courtesy of Sandra Castillo.
Bart Mendoza's latest for the SceneSD: An interview with Cathryn Beeks about the Rockin' Robin Music Fest on October 11 at Robin's Nest Animal Rescue in Ramona.
Read here: thescenesd.com/event-scenesd/rockin-robin--fundraiser-on-october-11/
A photo of violinist Patric Petrie and Bart Mendoza at the 2010 San Diego Music Awards, which took place at Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay. In the photo Patric's band, Skelpin, had just won the San Diego Music Award for "Best World Music Album" for their disc, A Trip to Skye, which was released on Bart's Blindspot Records label. Photo courtesy of Dan Chusid.
Blindspot
(music: Bart Mendoza /
lyrics: Bart Mendoza & Maya Morris)
Recorded by the Shambles at Blitz Recording Studios, San
Diego, produced by Richard Livoni with the Shambles, 1996. Bart Mendoza
(vocals, rhythm guitar), Kevin Ring (lead guitar), Mark Zadarnowski (bass),
Bill Calhoun (keyboards), Brad Kiser (drums).
Originally released on the Shambles Clouds All Day (1996, US / Blindspot) with the U.S. edition on Blindspot Records and two editions in Spain on SNAP! Records. The same version of the song appears on the compilation album, Into the Jet Stream of Pop (Canada / Beautiful Music, 2004).
“That one has an interesting creation story,” said Mendoza. “The song title itself was inspired by the word in a Wire song, but the chorus and the part of the first verse came from my being late to meet a friend, Maya Morris, one night. She left, but not before writing a note about some relationship troubles she was having, which she taped to my TV’s screen. I took that note, reworked the wording, added some lines, wrote a tune and had the song pretty much overnight.” This led to further collaboration. “I really liked the way she phrased things, so I asked if she had other writing I could see. She did, which inspired a batch of other tunes”
“Blindspot” has been covered several times, including by Michigan dream pop group, Glowfriends, who also performed a live version of the song on San Diego TV station, KUSI, by Serbian group, Eva Braun, and by Los Angeles based mod / power pop trio, The Eddies. The song also provided the name for Mendoza’s Blindspot Records music label.
Bart Mendoza's latest for the SceneSD is a preview of Ashley E Norton's upcoming album release show on October 23. The album, Veteran's Daughter, was produced by Jeff Berkley.
Read here: thescenesd.com/concert-scenesd/ashley-e-norton-album-release-event-october-23
Los Angeles based trio, The Eddies, new album Moving Forward includes covers of The Shambles song "Blindspot" and the Manual Scan songs, "Confidence and Love" and "Anymore." The latter has scored airplay on SiriusXM's Rodney Bingenheimer in The Underground Garage.
